Homemade Haunted Forest

Here is the follow up to our trip up the canyon....

 I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought, sure that would be easy.

Well, it wasn't hard per se but it still didn't quite hit the mark. 

We picked our branches.

Touched them up with some black spray paint.

I tried to plant them in flower pots but the pots were not big enough....

So we staked them in the ground with the help of locking ties.
Then wrapped the lights around them.

The only problem was they didn't look quite right. They didn't want to stand up. Of course little boys whacking at them didn't help either. I think more would have been better or perhaps a different layout.

Over all, not too bad but I will likely skip this step next Halloween. Instead I will add lights to the real tree out front.

A surprise party with lots of treats.

My dear sweetheart turned the big 40 this weekend. He isn't a 'needy' kind of guy. Just simple. Rather content to play Lego's with his boys. What do you do for this guy? Well, you invite all the friends over to just visit and enjoy their company. Of course Halloween is also his fav holiday so we'll make it a costume party.

I didn't know if I would be able to pull this off but it was worth a try. My sweet hubby never questions all my crazy projects. Between work, PTA, scouts, crafts, gardening, etc he just goes along with it all.

So I made these invites....

 When I said, "Honey, I am taking Josh to help me deliver these." he just smiled and said be careful.

Then when I bought loads and loads of goodies, I said they were for the PTA carnival (some of it was). He never questioned why SOOO much.

When I spent all day Friday cooking, he just helped out by doing whatever I needed done.

When I agreed to work an extra shift Friday night, he just sighed and said, "ok, we will miss you".

Little did he know.

The party that would await his arrival home.... My oldest called to give me a heads up.... Dad wondered who he was talking to but he covered well. Nicely done son.

We enjoyed Halloween crunch, Poisoned apples...

Mummy dogs, broomsticks, spider deviled eggs...

Goblin fingers, and yummy Cream of the crop cupcakes. Oh my oh my if these babies aren't tasty.

We had Key Lime and Pumpkin Spice, dear hubbies favs. Thanks so much Shelly!

Add a few Monster Munch meatball subs and Voila. Yummy!

We all dressed as the Avengers: Hulk, Black Widow, Hawk-Eye, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. We had so much fun.

And best of all...he didn't suspect a thing! He really did think it was all for the PTA carnival.
Happy Birthday Honey, I love you!

Pumpkin Rice Krispy

OK, so what is big krispy and orange all over? A pumpkin rice krispy treat! That is what has been made this time.

What you do first is you melt butter then add the 1 bag of mini marshmallows and stir 'til melted.

 After melting marshmallows you combine 6 cups of rice krispies and the marshmallows and stir.

 Here I smashed the mixture into a hand sized ball made a impression and put a tootsie role in for part of the stem.

 Now you add small candy strips for the stems and vines I used Rips.

 Enjoy

Colors of fall

Mr Matthew and I traveled up the canyon for some branches for my latest project. I couldn't help but share some of the beautiful colors we saw.

The day was cool but still warm enough to not need a jacket.

I loved how all the colors came together. Fall is so beautiful. Reds. Greens. Yellows. Oranges. All against a clear blue sky. *sigh*

And the beautiful scene was topped off with the grin of a very helpful little man. I cherise these little day adventures. All too soon my little man is gonna be going off to school then with friends and leaving mom behind. A little 1 on 1 time soothes the soul!

And here is a little peck at our project.......

The final pictures coming soon!

You've Been Boo'd Treats

It's that time of year again. When ghosts and gobblins come 'round leaving tricks and treats. Our family loves this little Halloween tradition. I make the treats and the boys love to "doorbell ditch"! They sneak up and ring the doorbell then run like made before getting caught. It becomes a family afair with dad driving.
This year I made a couple of treats.....How about some edible eyeballs?

Tasty huh!!! Actually they really are!
Powdered mini donuts. Red gel icing. Gummy lifesavors. Mini M&M's or chocolate chips. Just assemble and you are ready to release the gobblins.

We are usually the ones to start the Boo-fest so I like to make several treats to get it kicked off really well. It is so much fun to see the ghosts start to appear on doors letting any future ghosts know the house has already been haunted. hehehehe. Too much fun for the kiddos. Hopefully by Halloween every door in the neighborhood will have a ghost hanging up.

Here is the link for the poem so you can join in the fun.

Our Harvest "Mantel"

We don't really have a mantel but I use our bookshelf to decorate for each season. I love how a little change can go a long way.

I want to change the sign on the wall. I have a project in mind and hopefully will be able to get to it this week. Halloween is dear hubby's favorite holiday but I DON"T do scarey! I tend to beat spiders in my sleep and he wakes up with a couple of bruises. Really! I know it's crazy but I do. I used to sleep walk really bad too. My mom tells me I tried to walk out into a blizzard to find my dad. :-/

Needless to say around my house are the fun parts of fall and Halloween more than the spooky. 

I also have a couple of projects from last year that I need to finish. 

Keeping my fingers crossed I will get to some of them this week.
My list is growing longer. There are so many great ideas and just not enough time!

Spider Plate....

I bought a purple charger a couple of weeks ago at Micheals. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but I loved it. It was perfect for Halloween.

I have had a couple of ideas come to mind but nothing really popped...

until I saw this at Crap I've Made....

I new right away what I wanted to do.

I didn't have the right puff paint so I just went with the elementary route..

Elmers glue and glitter.

 At 11:00 you will see Mr. Spider....waiting to catch his prey.

 I love it! 

I have fabric to make a runner to go on my piano for Halloween. I hope to finish it but my craft supplies are a shambles at the moment......Keep watching to see why.

Halloween treats and Stocking stuffers

These are great fun for Halloween.

Wrapped rolled coins for stocking stuffers. This is great for my boys!! They are wanting their own money to spend more and more.

My sewing machine is down....:-(

My project plans this week included curtains for our astronomy room and a new apron for myself, I am sad to say my sewing machine is on the fritz though. Needless to say, I will have to defer these projects. Of course this has to happen just before Christmas time when I so very much need my machine. Add to this the fact that my craft supplies are mostly still in boxes and I am a lost crafting mom. Oh but never fear, I have a few other projects filed away to keep me busy, and..........

Christmas is around the corner. Next week I can officially put up my Christmas decor!!! Yes, I am one of those crazy ones who pull Halloween down to put up Christmas. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! It is so warm and cozy. I love the feeling in the air and even enjoy the hustle and bustle of shopping. Of course most of my shopping is already done or will be nearly done by Black Friday. My darling husband is especially wonderful at this time of year. He gets his own kick out of indulging my Christmas decorating. He surprised me the other day with a special outside decoration I had been oogling. Yep, I am spoiled! He never balks at my decorating or how early I want to put up decorations! Isn't he great?!!

So just keep watching....I will be switching gears to Holiday projects including some handmade cards. My dear friend gave me a gift card to Micheals for my birthday- yeah she knows just what I like- and I finally remembered to use it. I bought coordinating papers and plan to make numberous cards to have on hand for all the "just thinking of you" moments. Thanks so much Rebekah! Snail mail is still great for sending a touching note to family out of state! 

I guess I will be searching blogs again too....Any suggestions?!?! 

Halloween Decor: project 37 of 52

I found this scarecrow at Homebodies, a local craft store. 

Then I found some garland at Michaels.

I already had the tera cotta pots.

Already had the ribbon.

Put it all together and....

Voila!!

What do you think? I was really pleased at how things went together.

You've been Boo'd!

We enjoyed this little trick or treat game in Idaho. I didn't think it was done in our new neighborhood so, taking the advice of my fabulous mom, we started it here. It is so fun and a great way to build strength among neighbors. We made some pumpkin cookies and set off to deliver our treats with a trick. We started several in different parts of our neighborhood. I am glad to announce it has taken off with great success. We even ended up be boo'd twice ourselves. I guess I didn't get the sign up soon enough. There are variations of the poem but this is the one we used....

The project is simple, just make (or buy) some treats, wait until dark, sneek them to a friend, knock then run!! They then have to pass it on to 2 other friends. It's always exciting to get surprises. And let's face it, who doesn't enjoy some sweets?! Just remember to put the sign up!

Since we are having such success in our neighborhood I thought it would be fun to try with my blog friends. You can click on the picture to go to http://www.beenbooed.com/ and print the poem with the picture. Just remember to post it on your blog so you don't get boo'd again!

Here are the rules:

Pick your favorite 5 blogs to boo.

Post it on your blog.

Send them a note to pick up the picture.
Here are my lucky 5 picks:
Tightwad Mom's Frugal Forum
My Daily SAHM Life
Eighteen25
Everybody Loves Raymond..and Kat
Poppies at Play

Yard Ghosts: project 35 of 52

I stopped by Michaels and picked up some styrofoam balls. I can't believe how pricey these are getting. They used to be sooo cheap. I went with a smaller size because of the price but realized they were closer to the size of the boys heads anyway, works out better! I also picked up some dowels. I had a sheer drape that I wasn't using in our new home. I had been tempted to send it to the DI but a long piece of fabric can be used for so many things I hung onto it. Now it is transformed into my ghosts.....

One of my dowels snaped off when I was trying to push it into the ground. I think I may have to get bigger dowels but now I just know which ghost is the youngest, 4 boys, 4 ghosts....

during the day you can see through the fabric but Halloween is for the night anyway so I didn't worry about it too much. At dusk they look really cool. I tied the corners of the ghosts together so they look like they are circling the tree.......

Linking up...